Yesterday at The Athletic Craig Custance put out a list of the top 20 unrestricted free agents for 2018.
Among the 20 he had Blue Jackets right winger Cam Atkinson at 10 and defencemen Jack Johnson at 16. There were some very interesting notes on each player and the possibility of them re-signing in Columbus. Custance expects Johnson to hit free agency and noted how there was much more optimism for an extension before the season started. Custance mentions money, and a declining role, as to why the Jackets might not be inclined to re-sign Johnson.
The Jackets also have a cheap in house option to replace Johnson should he leave as a free agent. Either Markus Nutivaara or Ryan Murray could play alongside David Savard in the top four, and it opens up a spot for Gabriel Carlsson who the team is very high on. Carlsson is currently blocked from full time NHL duty as the seventh defencemen. It’s highly unlikely the team wants to commit to Johnson long-term and continue blocking their young defencmen.
Johnson’s current cap hit on
Cap Friendly is roughly $4.36M. He is going to want at least that in free agency and probably wants a raise. The Jackets don’t have the space for that, especially when they have rookies on their entry level contracts ready to step in. Getting Johnson off the books gives the team more financial flexibility to sign their free agents this summer, notably Cam Atkinson.
Atkinson is in the last year of his three year deal that carried a cap hit of $3.5 M. Over these three seasons Atkinson has been one of the best Blue Jacket players and his contract has been one of the most valuable in the league. The Jackets have got two straight 50+ point seasons out of 3.5 million dollars, a crazy surplus value. Atkinson is definitely looking to be paid in his next deal. He gave the Jackets a huge discount in his last contract and is going to be asking the team to pay up this time.
The Jackets however need to be careful not to fall into the trap of paying for past performance. Atkisnon is 28 years old a long-term deal maybe isn’t the best idea as you don’t want to be paying big money to a player over 30 as they decline. Even if Atkinson stays productive will it be enough to justify the large salary he’s going to command? The Jackets saw this first hand with Scott Hartnell, he was still a productive player at his age, but it wasn’t enough to justify his salary and they ended up buying him out. The Jackets don’t seem too concerned with that, Custance reported they have had discussions about a six and seven year deal with Atkinson.
“There have been conversations now that the season has started, with Columbus offering both a six and seven-year contract to keep Atkinson as part of the Blue Jackets' core long term.
That he hasn’t signed probably says a lot about what the salary on those offers were.”
By offering a long-term contract like this the Jackets are trying to keep the AAV down. Clearly the offers haven’t been good enough, but at least discussions are happening. Aaron Portzline on Twitter was asked about an Atkinson extension, and had this to say.
The Jackets are tough negotiators, and as Portzline says, lots can change over the course of a season.
Right now the Jackets have bigger issues (notably figuring out how to score more than one goal in regulation) than re-signing pending UFA’s. It’s the middle of November this isn’t at the forefront, but it’s something that will monitored as the season goes on.
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